


The Hidden Scepter

by ShadeShine



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Despair at the past and an unknown future, Gen, Lion's Here Too, requested by anonymous
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 06:30:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14785275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeShine/pseuds/ShadeShine
Summary: A requested work.  Steven goes into Lion and finds something that will change his world, and the world of someone close to him.





	The Hidden Scepter

Lion's mane was not the kind of place one who needed to breathe should spend much time in. 

Then again, Steven got an oxygen mask for this attempt.

Rose Q- no, Pink Diamond had to be hiding something in here, and he was going to find it.

Even if it was just a little bit of evidence.

Why lie?

Why not tell the truth after the war was over?

Why didn't she even tell him? 

He could have stopped this a lot sooner if he could just reveal himself as Pink Diamond and tell the other Diamonds to leave!

...that probably wouldn't work. In the Diamond Dream, she was little more than a child before Yellow Diamond, and Blue Diamond's sympathy probably didn't outrank Yellow's decrees.

Maybe something in here would be actual proof, other than pulling out his Gem and- he shuddered at the thought.

He could imagine himself just dying if he did that, and...he shook his head.

No negative thoughts. He was saving lives.

He just had to find-

Nothing. Nothing had changed. There was nothing he hadn't found before. The tape. The chest. The Diamond mark on the back of the tree-

“Hello there, what is this doing here?” Steven asked as he peered around the back of the tree. On one hand, even Pearl hadn't known about this place, but why would Pink Diamond bring a symbol of her former people here?

He touched it lightly, near the top, and saw the white quadrant light up.

“Oh my gosh!” He smiled as he pressed out the remainder of the 'combination'.

Yellow, Blue, Pink, and White again.

And then the tree lifted up off of the ground.

“I need to get Lars to grow his hair out so I can put lots of cool stuff in his hair,” he said, staring wide-eyed at the chamber hidden under the tree.

All that laid there was a single pink scepter resting on a gray pedestal. A vine of silver coiled up its frame, round and around until it terminated in a rose-shaped gem.

He took it and said, “I'll show it to the Gems. They'll know what this is.”

And so he hurried to exit Lion, only to flop face first into, “Connie?!?”

And so they rolled together, crashing to the floor of his room.

The scepter flew from his hand.

He twisted to see it spinning through the air, and he also saw Doctor Maheswaran in its path.

It hit her and crashed to the floor.

He swore he saw it glow for a moment, but then nothing.

“Are you okay?” she asked the two of them.

“Are you all right?” he asked first Connie as he helped her up, and then again to her mother.

“I'm fine.”

“Why are you wearing a diving mask?” she asked, and then followed up with, “why were you inside of...how did you?”

She looked at Lion, who gave no particular notice to the fact that he was being stared at. “It doesn't look like there's enough volume for you to be-”

“Mom, it's a Gem thing.”

“Right.” She took a deep breath in, and let it out. “Okay. The important thing is that we're all all right, not that anything that happened here is unscientific...or impossible.”

They shared a nod. 

“Did you see the Gems?” Steven asked.

“No, we just got here and it was empty except for you and Lion,” Connie said, “so what's that thing?”

“I have no idea. I found it in a secret compartment in the tree in Lion and-” He stopped and looked at Connie's mom. “It's a long story.”

“There's a lot of things that are long stories in this world of ours. Even before I knew about this stuff, things were complicated.” Priyanka sighed, squatting to pick up the Scepter.

It definitely glowed as she touched it, and pink light consumed the room for an instant.

Steven blinked and rubbed his eyes, only to see Priyanka laying flat on her back. Her dark brown skin had developed an odd pink tint. The odd, rose shaped Gem embedded below her breastbone was still glowing.

Her hair first tinged pink, as if dipped in strawberry milk, and then utterly stained itself pink and developed curls.

“Steven, what's going on?” Connie asked.

His lips fluttered worthlessly, and tears pricked at his eyes. He had thought her slain for a brief instant, but now...she faintly looked like his mother as she stood.

She reached down to where the Gem was stuck in her and moaned. Her eyes opened, their irises utterly black.

“Are...you two all right?” She winced.

“Mom, you...are you all right?” Connie ran over to her and touched her Gem.

Steven could only stare.

“I...I felt that,” Priyanka said.

“You look like a Gem, mom.”

“What?”

“How could that?” Steven asked the air in front of him, glancing at the Scepter. The Gem on its head was gone. She must have inadvertently activated it while picking it up, but why would Pink Diamond have something like this?

He faintly heard Priyanka run past him into his bathroom.

The scream of utter terror came through loud and clear.

Connie grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Steven, can you undo this?”

His eyes met hers. “I didn't even know what it was, Connie...”

She looked at him, her eyes growing teary.

“I still don't know what this is. I didn't even know it was possible,” he admitted, pulling her close. He knew hugs and kind words didn't make everything better, but he had to try.

“I'll go talk to her, okay?” he said, pulling away.

“All right. I'll...I dunno, I'll tape off a warning zone around that wand.”

“Doctor Maheswaran?” he asked cautiously as he stepped toward the bathroom. The door wasn't shut, but she had all but collapsed onto the sink.

She sprang up and seized him by the arms. A normally firm grasp was now painful. “Steven, what is this?”

“It...looks like you're a Gem,” he said with a wince, “please let go, you're hurting me.”

“Sorry,” she said, taking a deep breath in and letting it out, “you don't know what this is?”

“No.”

“And this is the first time you've seen something like this happen?”

He nodded.

“This isn't 'corruption'?”

“No, that's...worse.” How many Gems had Pink Diamond condemned to that fate by her dishonest rebellion? Why didn't she tell the truth?

“I have so many questions,” she murmured.

“I'll tell you everything I can, and we'll figure out the rest together.” He smiled and offered his hand.

She took it, and they walked to the couch and just talked until the day got away from them.

She knew no where near the whole truth, but she would, one day.


End file.
